Now, Paramount Home Entertainment announced an unexpected bit of news: a deluxe, four-disc release of 2009's Star Trek and 2013's Star Trek Into Darkness is set for release this September... containing every bit of produced material missing from last year's Into Darkness release... plus even more new material!

Star Trek: The Compendiumis coming to retailers on September 9, and is made up of the two-disc Star Trek special edition release from 2010 along with the IMAX version of Into Darkness, all the retailer-exclusive live-action material, all of the XBox Video deleted scenes, along with a new gag reel and two new video featurettes.

STAR TREK: THE COMPENDIUM

Both Feature Films — Including the IMAX Version of Star Trek Into Darkness —
Plus Previously Released Bonus Material and Additional Never-Before-Seen Footage
Debut in Four-Disc Set

Director J.J. Abrams’ global sensations Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness set a course for the ultimate home entertainment package in STAR TREK: THE COMPENDIUM, arriving September 9, 2014 from Paramount Home Media Distribution. The set includes four Blu-ray Discs with both films in sparkling high definition and the IMAX version of Star Trek Into Darkness, Digital HD copies of both films, plus previously released bonus material, including the Star Trek Into Darkness director’s commentary.

STAR TREK: THE COMPENDIUM also boasts never-before-released footage from Star Trek Into Darkness including a gag reel and new behind-the-scenes featurettes. This comprehensive four-disc set will be offered for the suggested retail price of $39.99.

The STAR TREK Blu-ray is presented in 1080p high definition with English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD, French 5.1 Dolby Digital and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital with English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles. The STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS Blu-ray is presented in 1080p high definition with English 7.1 Dolby TrueHD, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, Portuguese 5.1 Dolby Digital and English Audio Description and English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles.

The four-disc set includes access to a Digital HD copy of each film, as well as the following:

Disc 1 - Star Trek (2009)

Disc 2 - Star Trek (2009)

To Boldly Go — Taking on the world’s most beloved science fiction franchise was no small mission. Director J.J. Abrams, writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, producer Damon Lindelof, and executive producer Bryan Burk talk about the many challenges they faced and their strategy for success.

Branching Pods:

The Shatner Conundrum

Red Shirt Guy

The Green Girl

Trekker Alert!

Casting — The producers knew their greatest task was finding the right cast to reprise these epic roles. The cast, for their part, talk about the experience of trying to capture the essence of these mythic characters. The piece concludes with a moving tribute to Leonard Nimoy.

A New Vision — J.J. Abrams’ vision was not only to create a Star Trek that was a bigger, more action-packed spectacle, but also to make the spectacle feel real. Every aspect of production—from unique locations to the use of classic Hollywood camera tricks—was guided by this overall objective.

Branching Pods:

Savage Pressure

Starships — Abrams and production designer Scott Chambliss were careful to pay tribute to the design of the original Enterprise, but they also wanted to make it futuristic and cool for a modern audience. This chapter focuses on the unique stories behind the creation of the film’s starships.

Branching Pods:

Warp Explained

Paint Job

Bridge Construction Accelerated

The Captain’s Chair

Button Acting 101

Narada Construction Accelerated

Shuttle Shuffle

Aliens — Designers Neville Page and Joel Harlow talk about the hurdles they faced creating new alien species, recreating the Romulans and Vulcans, and designing the terrifying creatures on Delta Vega for the new Star Trek.

Branching Pods:

The Alien Paradox

Big-Eyed Girl

Big Bro Quinto

Klingons

Drakoulias Anatomy 101

Planets — From the frozen landscape of Delta Vega to the desert plains of Vulcan, Scott Chambliss and the art department had a number of radically different planets to create. Abrams’ desire to shoot on real locations whenever possible led the production team to a number of strange and surprising locations.

Branching Pods:

Extra Business

Confidentiality

Props and Costumes — Property master Russell Bobbitt had the unique challenge of designing props that were both true to the original series and pertinent to today’s technology. Likewise, costume designer Michael Kaplan talks about how he designed costumes that paid homage to what came before yet were relevant and timeless.

Branching Pods:

Klingon Wardrobe

Ben Burtt and the Sounds of Star Trek — When famed sound designer Ben Burtt was hired to create sounds for the first Star Wars film, he took his inspiration from the original Star Trek series. Burtt jumped at the opportunity to pay tribute to the sounds that sparked his career with the sounds he created for the new Star Trek.

Score — As a fan of the original series, composer Michael Giacchino embraced the challenge of creating new music for Star Trek while preserving the spirit of Alexander Courage’s celebrated theme.

The STAR TREK: THE COMPENDIUM Blu-ray set available for purchase includes Digital Versions of both films that can be accessed through UltraViolet, a new way to collect, access and enjoy movies. With UltraViolet, consumers can add movies to their digital collection in the cloud, and then stream or download them — reliably and securely — to a variety of devices.

We have to admit, we're quite surprised to hear about this new release -- with as long as the previous Trek films have languished without true, high-quality "special edition" releases, we didn't expect to see any kind of Into Darkness reissue for at least another year or two, closer to the 2016 release of the next film... if at all.

For those of you who have held off purchasing Star Trek Into Darkness thus far, it seems that your wait has now become worth while. While it's not clear if a standalone release of this Into Darkness special edition will be available, it looks to be a pretty good excuse to repurchase the first film if only to obtain all the new material set to be included in this release.

iTunes IMAX 1.78:1 Footage vs. Blu-ray 2.40:1 Footage

Now, as for those of you thinking that this is just another in a long line of Trek double-dip releases, all previous reports -- along with today's column by Bill Hunt of The Digital Bits -- seem to indicate that Paramount never had any intention of releasing a new version of this film after the fall of 2013. While we can never be certain if this is truly the case, the fan backlash against the poorly-handled rollout seems to have been the key factor in the decision to bring Star Trek: The Compendium to market.

With a suggested price of $39.99, it's likely Amazon and other retailers will offer this set even cheaper, making this release an even more tempting offer. We'll have preorder links as soon as they become available, and with any luck, we'll also be able to review the additional features found on this set as we get closer to September.

For now, though, we want to hear from you! What do you think about this new Blu-ray boxed set? Unexpected, or inevitable? Sound off in the comments below!

UPDATED: You can now pre-order "Star Trek: The Compendium" on Blu-ray from Amazon.com in the US and Amazon.ca in Canada. Order yours through the links below!

Fantastic! Now all we need is the director’s cuts of the original movies and it will be all good!

Darkthunder

With more lens flares? Thanks, but no thanks. The 2009 movie, and Into Darkness are good entertainment. But they certainly don’t feel like Star Trek. Bring back Trek to television, where it belongs. Minus lens flares.

MJ

No thank you. The last two Trek TV series — Voyager and Enterprise — we pretty poor. Keep the movies going please.

Darkthunder

Thankfully, your opinion is not shared by the majority. Neither is mine most likely. Both Voyager and Enterprise had their fair share of bad episodes, but guess what? So did TOS, TNG and DS9. TOS had Spock’s Brain, or the Shoreleave episode. Both of which were, by your own definition “piss poor”.

And who’s to say, that putting Trek on television would kill the ongoing movies? After all, they ran the 3rd through 10th movies, while there was still an active television series. Which is quite likely part of what caused the “Trek fatigue” before JJ’s renewal. The other part, is piss poor execs managing the productions: Rick Berman, and Brannon Kiss-my-ass Braga.

MJ

Well I will certainly agree with you that poor management of Trek in the latter Berman era doomed the franchise.

Enterprise was suppose to be a prequel to TOS, but everything about it looked more like TNG tech versus TOS look. Needed more Matt Jeffries look and less of The Okuda’s 80’s metro-technology look.

That would be a fan made image. Note the 3 lit Impulse Engines, whereas the TNG Enterprise never had more than the center engine lit (unless saucer separated). It wasn’t until DS9 that the Galaxy Class had the 3 engines lit simultaneously, and even then, never in this sort-of close up as depicted.

Your first picture is a fan made image, and your second is a picture of the model from the studio. Lighting and post production can change a lot of things – all that matters is how the Enterprise D looks in show.

“but the photos from the series don’t give the profile I wanted to show.”

I’m sure you can find one. This website alone probably has hundreds!

MJ

No matter how you slice it, the Enterprise D always looked a bit “fakey” to me. You are not going to convince me otherwise. It just doesn’t look as credible to me as the earlier ships or even the later E. As this is proven out by the design of the Enterprise E — they went back to the more classic look and design and fixed the ugly and unconvincing look of the D.

hypnotoad72

I thought they went back to Kirk’s TMP Enterprise, and what they liked best about the “D” (mostly the windows), to make the “E” – right down to what clearly does not work: The pointless reuse off TMP’s shuttle bay in the secondary hull… The “E” looks more aerodynamic and sleek, but the “D” – especially the three-nacelle version – looks more original and less like a rehash.

New Horizon

I think the 4 ft model of the Enterprise D looked “fakey” but the 6ft model was stunning.

New Horizon

The TMP Enterprise was much more colorful than the Enterprise D, it just didn’t show up on screen due to lighting. The D doesn’t either. It’s exaggerated so you can see the details.

Enterprise was a disaster, starting with the Akira-Prise and then that awful theme tune. Not to mention that Scott Bakula failed to ease into the role – his performances were so stiff and stilted.

Then we got Romulans, the Ferengi, Klingons and the Borg! which just showed that there were no new ideas at all.

Make no mistake that Enterprise failed to connect with an audience – in my humble opinion – because it was derivative of what had come before.

Abrams’ Trek, whatever some here think about it – has made Star Trek into a viable proposition for a new TV series. For that alone, we should be grateful. Hopefully a future TV series will have completely different cast and crew to those of the past.

To succeed, Trek will need to be relevant, dynamic and not limited to the old five-act story telling structure. No – it will need to be like Game of Thrones – contemporary story telling at it’s best.

hypnotoad72

VOY had some top-notch episodes, but – as with DS9 – had a fair share of boring retreads…

Trip

#cashgrab

http://www.trekcore.com/ TrekCoreStaff

Keep in mind that there have been plenty of people waiting for a release just like this one — that has everything — before buying “Into Darkness.”

MJ

Not only that, I’m going to get it for the 1.78 to 1 IMAX format, which fills out my home theater screen much better.

Sykes

Only some of the film is in 1:78, the rest of it you’ll just have to live with it not filling the screen shape.

MJ

Oh crud, the Batman thing again. Thanks for the warning.

http://www.trekcore.com/ TrekCoreStaff

The entire film wasn’t shot with IMAX cameras, so there can’t be 1.78:1 on every scene.

hypnotoad72

And the way it was originally filmed and meant to be, since the letterboxing was just matted on sloppily… that’s yet another slap in the face…

Chris915

I’m happy with what I already have, but this is nice.

Mike C.

I only have the DVD of ST’09, so I’ll probably grab this.

Stephen

I didn’t really like the film, but I love the behind-the-scenes stuff. I wonder if Netflix will get these discs, I sometimes just order extras from them

I spoke to Paramount Australia about a local release. Star Trek is a huge property to them and if this is released in America, they have no doubt it will be released elsewhere.

Brian C. Bock

Lesson learned, Paramount! Everyone, please, do not buy any future release that has exclusive content for different retailers and services. WAIT. Maybe if enough people don’t buy their double-dipping discs they’ll start treating their customers with some respect. Doubtful, but I can hope. But I’m sure all that VAM was in different line items in their budget, so that makes it OK.

Yotsuyasan

As someone who was waiting on STID, this is potentially good news. While not the best Trek film, I would like to own it. (The only one I’ve actively avoided owning is Nemesis.) But the fiasco with the supplemental features was a major turn-off for me.
.
On the other hand… this release does seem unnecessarily padded to add to the cost, and that padding is the inclusion of the ’09 film. Really, is there anyone who wants to own STID, but would have been unsatisfied with the initial release, who wouldn’t already own the ’09 film? I suppose it would be different if there were additional new supplements for it, but there’s nothing on this set for the ’09 film that isn’t on the original release.
.
Don’t get me wrong, I shall probably end up with this. But rather then being the complete redemption for past mistakes that this release could have been, I am left still having a slightly bitter feel about it.

Huffy

I only have a digital download of STID. I’ll pick this up if it sells for under $40. The best part about this is the IMAX version of the film. I feel like a good bit was lost on the Blu-Ray version. The whole film just feels bigger, and we know the original intent was for the film to feel that way. The new features sound pretty cool too. I’m in.

batkinson001

looking forward to this. I can finally have both movies in bluray…

pittrek

Any idea if this will be released in all regions?

PS FINALLY they understood it’s not OK to piss off fans of their products

scarecroe

Great news!

adamclark83

It’s about time. I will be getting it for Into Darkness’s extras. Studios nowadays seem to have forgotten what Blu-ray was originally described as. I’m glad that Paramount have actually acknowledged they made a mistake. Blu-rays should be packed with extras.

Mrplatitude

Love both movies, but I already own both on Blu-ray. I don’t think my wife will let me buy them again, even if I try to explain about the special features and the IMAX shots :p

Charlie

I’ll believe the rebate program when I see it.

CoolGeek

I dont really care too much about extras.I buy a film to watch the film over and over again.So im happy with the regular blu ray version of STID that i have.Nice that its finally going to be all there for the completists though.

archer9234

Sorry. Double dip status will stay with me, in till it doesn’t come with ’09. Because I would be Double Dipping with ’09. I already wasted extra money buying the 3 disc version of ’09, that came with that horrible star trek top down game demo. And I don’t do that. Unless you do things like TNG-R.

James

Yes, ST:ID sold less blu-rays and DVD’s, but that’s because physical media sales have declined. In 2013, DVD sales fell by 13.6% and the adoption of blu-ray has been very slow. The following source shows that ST:ID was #3 in 2013 for digital movie purchases and rentals. It’s done pretty well for Paramount and I hope that if they look at Star Trek as a whole then they might see the financial sense in restoring DS9 to HD.

It’s a Compendium set that feels like
it’s jumping the gun a bit. A year later in 2015 and it would be riding high on
the buzz beginning to emerge about a third in production. Probably a go-to
collection for new fans when that’s in cinemas.

A step in the right direction, but this Compendium set feels like it’s jumping the gun a bit. A year later in late ’15 and it would anticipate the third film, as that’s about when buzz would begin to emerge about the production.

Just Star Trek Into Darkness: The IMAX Edition would’ve been worthy enough… and an addition to the existing theatrical &/or 3-D combo ones. Once they settled on not withholding any extras and ensuring they were to all be put into a new widely available release.

hypnotoad72

Wow – they letterboxed the 1.78 edition to make the 2.40 edition… what a cheap way of doing things, since some scenes clearly made use of the extra space but were inanely chopped off (e.g. the London tower in the typical and trite teal/orange color scheme that got old by 2005…)

archer9234

They were dumb. If you do this kind of thing. You’re suppose to frame for the smaller area. So when you crop, you don’t cut off Uhrua’s head like that.

danielcw

Almost every movie is cropped in some way,
most filmstock and digital cameras aren’t 2,35:1, and anamorphic lenses aren’t a good choice in many situations (for example on a 3D movie like STID)

Get used to it, you won’t see everything the camera saw for various technical and artistic reasons.

By the way, an IMAX camera is “higher” than 1,78:1, IIRC.
So you are still missing footage the IMAX camera saw.

Muzer

In some ways, I’m glad that this won’t include the 3D version, as it means my first purchase wasn’t totally useless 😉

Hey berto

Making good on it would be giving us a discount if we hand over our old blus when we buy this. Not that I’d expect that.. but having us fork out more money for the same movie with added stuff is still double dipping.

More extras are nice, but that IMAX aspect ratio intrigues me more.

http://www.trekcore.com/ TrekCoreStaff

Digital Bits did mention that Paramount is working on some sort of rebate plan for people who already bought STID the first time around.

Hey berto

Well that’s encouraging! Thanks for that.

Dr. Cheis

And after they release this set, I bet they release the IMAX 3D version, and the IMAX version of the 2009 movie. Just to be sure we buy it all a third time.

Vincent Perkins

Although this is good news, I still would not say this is Paramount “make good” as this is Paramount making more money from the fans, they know most will have already bought the films, so have to buy BOTH again and what if you want STID in 3d your still have to pick up another copy. I just glad that I posted this mess of a release on Amazon.co.uk as a review and its the highest rated helpful review on there with 150+ people for the film.

Daniel Buckley

“also boasts never-before-released footage from Star Trek Into Darkness including a gag reel and new behind-the-scenes featurettes” So even this release has exclusives. I guess it will never end.

StalwartUK

A re-release at some point was probably always on the cards. No doubt they held back a couple of things as an incentive for those who had already bought all the previous releases to pick the Compendium up. At least there will be a rebate offer to help smooth things over a bit.

Hopefully this will be released elsewhere and won’t end up being an American exclusive.

Charlie

Already on sale at Amazon but no details on the rebate… as I said earlier, I’ll believe it when I see it.

Yotsuyasan

I love how this article states that the MSRP is $39.99, yet Amazon’s list price is $44.99. Sure, they’re selling it (currently) for $31.49, but they can claim they’re offering a higher percentage off then they actually are. Meh…

I was hoping this might go for no more then $30.00. I know it’s only another buck fifty… still, I’ve waited this long, I suppose waiting a bit longer and seeing if it someday goes on sail a bit more (maybe towards the end of the year with the holiday sales?) won’t be the end of the world.

Yotsuyasan

Hmm… Wonder if they saw my post? :p The MSRP’s been adjusted, and the selling price lowered accordingly.

Mark Benjamin David

This is ok, finally IMAX footage available. LET’S MAKE SURE THEY DO THE NEXT MOVIE RIGHT! …especially getting IMAX footage on the blu-ray, and no more special features only from certain stores.

FYI: we HATE UltraViolet! iTunes digital copies if you are going to offer digital copies at all.